The invention relates to a method for wirelessly transmitting vehicle data, whereby vehicle data provided for data exportation is stored in a storage medium, and is read out and transmitted within the framework of a vehicle data acquisition, for example, a vehicle diagnosis.
Such a method using a vehicle key, a chip card, or a transponder with an integrated memory is known from German Patent document DE 199 48 663 A1. This memory is used as an intermediate memory for the vehicle data, before the data is transmitted by way of electrical contacts or radio frequencies.
From German Patent document DE 196 50 047 A1, it is known to transmit the vehicle data by way of a communication connection, such as a car telephone, automatically or upon the driver's command to the service station. After the data for the vehicle identification (type, model year, vehicle identification number, holder), also made available are the content of fault memories, control units, etc. The service station can then estimate the extent of the work and suggest a servicing date so that the driver's visit to the service station will be shortened.
German Patent document DE 195 45 888 A1 also relates to a wireless diagnostic data transmission, in which the consideration is also discussed to query the diagnostic data when the vehicle drives into the service area. The use of a key is suggested, which contains a stored vehicle identification in order to release the diagnostic data from the vehicle.
It was found to be a disadvantage, in practice, that an intermediate memory, for example, in the case of a key, includes only limited storage space, so that it is not possible to transmit fault memory and test data to the service station in this manner. An enlargement of the key memory results in additional hardware and software expenditures. In addition, the memory read-in time is longer. The fast withdrawal of the key by the driver at the end of a drive may also lead to problems.